A year ago, I quit my job to start a business — here's what I wish someone had told me at the beginning

My goal was to create a life where I could travel more, learn more, have greater ownership over my time, and work in my pajamas.

I spent six months preparing, but I still wasn't prepared for the plot twists, the highs, and the lows.

Over the last 12 months, I've collaborated with 29 clients from seven countries, failed miserably on four product launches, worked from three continents, flown past the six-figure revenue mark, had months where I earned less than minimum wage, felt like a both a genius and a failure — sometimes in the same day — and succumbed to one particularly taxing period of anxiety and desolation.

These are things I wish someone would have told me at the start of this journey.

Nobody knows what they're doing

This fascinating piece on the psychological price of entrepreneurship references an analogy about entrepreneurship I love: it's like a man riding a lion.

"People look…and think, This guy's really got it together! He's brave! And the man riding the lion is thinking, How the hell did I get on a lion, and how do I keep from getting eaten?"

Everyone running a business, whether they're an independent freelancer or Fortune 500 CEO, is simply making educated guesses based on the information and experience available to them.

Imposter syndrome is real. I have to remind myself that it's experienced by everyone, not just me. Those we look up to as "successful" aren't special or extraordinarily talented. They just had the courage to dream big and the commitment to persevere.

Doing this is hard — Doing it alone is harder

I launched pretty much the easiest business it is to launch: a service-based business. I work from home, on my own. But it's still so hard some days. Doubts and anxieties can quickly become overwhelming.

A couple of months in, I learned not to underestimate the value of support networks - mentors, peers, family and friends. I thought I could do this alone, but I was wrong.

I do a lot of work in the social impact space, so set up my own social enterprise mastermind program to help create this framework of support. I also have an amazing mentor.

This doesn't always prevent failures or challenges, but it helps to resolve them.

Give up the things that don't contribute to your goal

Priorities - and accountability to those priorities - are more important to me than ever before.

Every evening, I write my #1 goal in a notebook. Every Sunday night, I write my five goals for the following week on the whiteboard in my office. If a task isn't aligned with these, I won't do it.

Forgive yourself for failure

I've done several product launches this year that have fallen flat. I've had a couple of times where I wasn't sure how I would pay for rent the following month. These are my worst moments - when I feel like I've failed.

I quickly learned that a measure of a solopreneur is when things are at their worst. That's when it takes real commitment and determination. Anyone can work for themselves when the money is rolling in and they're working from a hammock on Koh Phangan.

Becoming okay with failure, forgiving yourself for it, and creating processes to ensure you learn from it has a big learning curve. The sooner you can master it, the better.

There's more than one way to structure your life

It's fascinating to me how we live our lives within a framework that feels concrete but is actually malleable.

Growing up, we're basically told how things are and how to "succeed," whatever that means, within this structure. In reality, we have a lot more power than we're led to believe.

"Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again."

Until last year, I'd never truly understood that. Or maybe I just never chose to believe it.

Will Russell is digital marketer living in San Francisco helping nonprofits and social enterprises use marketing to increase their impact. For more information on his consulting and training services, go to http://www.willrussellmarketing.com. Follow him on Twitter at @willrussellmktg.